Tenerife Film City Plans Open for Public Review, Draw Opposition
Tenerife's government has opened plans for a 400,000-square-meter "film city" in Adeje, featuring 13 studios and aiming to create 15,000 jobs, to public review amidst opposition from environmental groups concerned about its significant water usage and land impact.
The Tenerife government has opened plans for a new "film city" in Adeje to public review. This is a key part of the environmental assessment process, a required step before the environmental agency can issue a report outlining what studies are needed for the final environmental review.
Imagine Green Studios is behind the project, which will cover 400,037 square meters in Adeje. The site was chosen for several reasons: good weather, close to Tenerife South Airport, direct highway access, existing hotels, nearby healthcare, and access to restaurants, transport, and training facilities.
The "film city" aims to be a cultural hub for film and TV production. It will offer training, host cultural events, and promote audiovisual work. The goal is to create a specialized center for film production and training, using advanced digital technology and offering many services for big-budget projects. This would make the Canary Islands an important Atlantic hub for film services. A higher education and professional training center is planned to train the necessary experts.
Plans include thirteen filming studios, one of them underwater, along with warehouses for sets, post-production facilities, meeting rooms, and other services. The project is expected to create around 15,000 jobs. It also aims to attract young people to the film industry by offering a vocational training center. This center would train technicians and professionals in fields like lighting, art direction, directing, post-production, design, carpentry, crafts, and makeup.
The chosen site is the Fañabé industrial estate, an already developed industrial area next to the Southern Highway (TF-1). Documents state that earlier environmental checks found no important wildlife or plant life, and the necessary environmental impact studies are now in progress.
However, the proposal has faced opposition. Several environmental groups and the political party Sí se Puede have rejected the project. Sí se Puede claims the initiative is "neither culture nor future," but instead "destroys the land" and moves away from a sustainable path for Tenerife. One major concern raised is that the project could use as much water annually as 355 Olympic-sized swimming pools.